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Dear all,
Thank you for joining our program. As the first mock examination is approaching, I hope you have prepared well for it. I believe that you have received your first topic for essay writing as well.
I like to play badminton. I try very hard and give my 200% when I am playing. But I usually lose. It does not matter how hard I try in the court. My opponents run every day. I run only once a week. The preparation work outside the court determines the outcome before I even step into the court.
Let me just be straightforward and frank. Next year will be a tough year for finding jobs, especially for finance students. It is going to be a tough fight. Your preparation work from now till next September when the recruitment season starts determines your success in Hong Kong. If you want to find a job in Hong Kong, make sure you finish all the tasks in the preparation list, especially reading all the books of section VI in your preparation letter, attached here again for your reference. Yes, there are a lot of books and tasks to finish. I am not going pretend this is not difficult. Yes, getting an IELTS score of 8.0 for speaking and writing is very difficult and takes a lot of effort. However, there is a storm out there, even in China. This is one of the most difficult year for the finance job market I have seen in my life. It is going to be even more difficult next year.
However, you have a chance. Your competitors are still sleeping and dreaming. But you understand the reality now. You will crawl to the starting line faster and earlier than they do. When they wake up and realize the problems, you will have been marching day and night for many months already. You can win if you get to the starting line now and start the painful march. If you do not finish what I tell you to do before coming, you will find Hong Kong a very unforgiving place. Ask your mentors, cc-here, if this is the truth. Whether you will be wasting your money and time for studying the master in Hong Kong depends on you. It depends on how much time and effort you put in now.
Time management
Some of you may find it very difficult to handle all the tasks as well as the different activities in year 4. You have to learn how to manage your time better. Here is a short training course that should help you managing your time better. Just spend 30 minutes to go through this. You will find it very helpful.
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_00.htm
The simplest advice I can give is to keep an activity log, a time sheet. Whenever you start a new activity, just write down the time. For example, 7:30 wake up. 7:30 study. 7:50 day dreaming. 8:30 weibo, etc....
Just do that for a week, and you can see how effective you have been managing your time. That was tremendously useful for me when I was a senior executive, a trader, a father and a part time professor at the same time several years ago. With proper time management, I could still sleep eight hours every day, play badminton twice a week, play squash once a week and watch a movie once a week.
Make sure you sleep well, at least for 8 hours a day, and exercise often, at least three times a week. You must be healthy to handle pressure.
You should spend eight effective hours in your preparation work every day. (i.e. no day dreaming, no weibo, no renren, no 微信，no 陌陌，no 摇一摇，no facebook during those hours. Just switch off your phone and computer during those studying time.)
Online courses
If you find reading books difficult, please find a set of video lectures in the document attached here.
You can find most of the courses in www.cosmolearning.com as well.
Solving problems independently
You will soon be working to help your future boss to make money in the highly competitive finance market. To succeed, you have to be able to solve problems independently. Remember that you are an adult now. Behave as one. We love to hear questions, if the question is a good question which can lead to deeper and more profound understanding. If it is a problem you can solve by simply doing a 10 seconds search on Google or Baidu, it is a wrong question to ask. If it is a question that you can find on the Web, your future boss is going to fire you because you are wasting his precious time. Time is money. If you can find the answer in books, don't ask. E.g. Should you ask your professor if another version of the textbook is suitable? Can you figure this out by comparing it with the version of your classmates you knew from QQ group? Can you solve the problem in some other manner? If you cannot solve this problem, how are you going to find out if you should invest in a particular company when you start working? How are you supposed to work out the amount of capital required for a venture if you work in the treasury department of a corporation? We learn how to solve problems by solving problems.
Here are some simple rules to follow, try to solve the problem for at least
a. 20 minutes before asking your close friends for help.
b. 60 minutes before asking your classmates
c. 3 hours before asking your tutor or your professor
e. A week before asking your boss who pays you to help him solving problems, not to bring him more problems and troubles.
Remember that in the commercial world attitude and EQ is more important than anything else.
Best regards,
Chak
书单内容回复可见~~~
1) Mathematics:
Textbooks to study:
i. Spivak: Calculus 3rd edition
ii. Lang: introduction to Linear Algebra
iii. DeGroot, Schervish: Probability and Statistics, Fourth edition
If you are not used to reading mathematical proofs, you may want to read the following book, which is helpful, but not part of the examination,
a) Binmore: The foundations of Analysis, a straightforward introduction, book 1: logic, sets and numbers
If you find multivariable calculus difficult to understand, the following book, not part of the examination, can help you:
b) David Bachman: Advanced Calculus Demystified
2) Economics:
i. Nicholson, Snyder: Theory and Application of Intermediate microeconomics, 11th edition
ii. Dornbusch, Fischer, Startz: Macroeconomics, 11th edition
iii. Stock, Watson: Introduction to Econometrics, 3rd edition
3) Accounting:
i. Marshall: Accounting: What the numbers Mean, 9th edition.
ii. Lerner: Schaum’s easy outlines, Bookkeeping and Accounting.
For those who have not studied accounting before, you can develop or supplement your understanding and mastery of accounting with a variety of tools available on the internet. A very good website is
http://www.dwmbeancounter.com/tutorial/Tutorial.html
Another site is: http://www.kutztownsbdc.org/course_listing.asp
Choose any of the "Accounting" tutorials; they are all good, and all free. To use this site, you must register (it's free) as they need the registration to keep track of your progress in the tutorial. So if you log out and log in again at a later time, it opens to where you left off. (By the way, this site is from Kutztown University, but is funded by the U.S. Government).
This is a Master program in Finance. We do not teach undergraduate finance. We ASSUME you have sufficient knowledge to study finance at a Master level. If you have not studied finance before, we selected you because of your strong self-learning capabilities. To prepare yourself for the program, you should pass CFA Level 1, and preferably CFA Level 2. Furthermore, you have to go through the following books before arriving. Otherwise you can find the program very challenging to follow, resulting in very low GPA and difficulties to graduate. Even if you are finance majors but have studied these topics long ago, you should still revise them. Furthermore, if you studied those materials in Chinese, you will find it very helpful to read these English textbooks to prepare yourself for a teaching environment in English only.
i.) Madura: financial institutions and markets, 9th edition
ii.) Brigham and Ehrhardt: Financial management: Theory & Practice, 13 edition.
iii.) Hull: Options, Futures and other Derivatives, 8th edition, chapter 1 – 18
iv.) Penman: Financial statement analysis and Security valuation, 4th edition
b) If you have never studied business law before
Law is extremely important for finance. In fact, a financial transaction is nothing more than a legal contract. Many students from mainland China find common law, especially business law, very difficult. If you have never studied business law before, you should read
i. Ashcroft & Ashcroft: Law for business, 17th edition
c) If you are not familiar with Excel or have never written VBA macro before
Excel is the most common tool used in financial analysis. Many of our courses require you to write VBA macros. Excel and VBA macro is not difficult to learn, but you do have to be familiar with it before the program starts. During job interviews, you could be given a pile of materials and a computer to work out the solutions. These books show you how to do various types of jobs from financial analysis to financial modeling in Excel. This is very important. Frequently, practical problem cannot be solved by pencil and paper alone. Our program is a very practical program. A lot of our professors are practitioners. We do expect you to be able to perform as if you were working in the real world.
i. Walkenbach: Excel VBA Programming for Dummies, 2nd edition
ii. Gottlieb: Next Generation Excel: Modeling in Excel for Analysts and MBA
iii. Day: Mastering financial Modeling in Microsoft Excel, 2nd edition
iv. Jackson Staunton: Advanced modeling in finance using Excel and VBA
d) If your soft skills are not good
Many courses require you to debate present or discuss controversial topics. Furthermore, successful job hunting often require good soft skills as much as hard skills. These books and materials should help you to improve your soft skills. Furthermore, these are very entertaining books to read.
Recommended readings:
i.) Avery, Walker, Toole: Teamwork is an individual skill, 2001
ii.) Useem: Leading up: how to lead your boss so you both win
iii.) Boothman: how to make people like you in 90 seconds
iv.) Garner: Conversationally speaking
v.) Malhotra: Negotiation Genius
vi.) Cialdini: influence, the psychology of persuasion
Audio or video lectures:
These are great lectures for improving communication, decision making and leadership skills, as well as your listening skills:
i. Art of Public Speaking http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=2031
ii. Art of conflict management http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=5964
iii. Art of critical decision making http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=5932
iv. Transformational leadership: How leaders change teams, companies, and organizations http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=5964
v. Effective communication skills http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=9331
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